Posts Tagged ‘contemporary fantasy’

Gail Carriger is back with another delightful Custard Protocal book. This time we follow Primrose Tunstell who’s been accidentally abandoned in Singapore! Thankfully she’s got a gorgeous cover to console her.

The action and adventure kick off on July 17th Pre-order your copy of COMPETENCE today, and say hello to Gail Carriger on Twitter or head on over to her Facebook to see if she will be stopping by your hometown for a visit.

DREADFUL COMPANY is the second riveting contemporary fantasy novel in the world of STRANGE PRACTICE (US | UK | AUS), featuring Dr. Greta Helsing, whose family has been keeping the supernatural community not-alive and well for generations.

If you can’t wait for the release of DREADFUL COMPANY in July 2018, here’s a sneak peek at Will Staehle’s amazing cover!

When Greta Helsing, doctor to the undead, is unexpectedly called to Paris to present at a medical conference, she expects nothing more exciting than professional discourse on zombie reconstructive surgery and skin disease in bogeymen — and hopefully at least one uneventful night at the Opera.

Unfortunately for Greta, Paris happens to be infested with a coven of vampires — and not the civilized kind. If she hopes to survive, Greta must navigate the darkest corners of the City of Lights, the maze of ancient catacombs and mine-tunnels underneath the streets, where there is more to find than simply dead men’s bones.

Praise for Strange Practice:

“In Vivian Shaw’s Strange Practice, a charmingly unusual doctor and her charges keep the city of London from grave danger. In the process, they peel back the covers of familiar (and according to them, somewhat “libelous”) stories to find that reality—especially with the undead—is more poignant and complex than it seems at first glance. An excellent adventure.”
—Fran Wilde, award-winning author of Updraft, Cloudbound, and Horizon

“Strange Practice is written with elegance, wit, and compassion. The prose is gorgeous, the wit is mordant, and the ideas are provocative. Also, there are ghouls.”
—Laura Amy Schlitz, Newbery Medal winner

“A darkly delicious adventure featuring a quirky new heroine. Strange Practice breathes new life into the undead.”
—James Bennett, author of Chasing Embers

“An exceptional and delightful debut, in the tradition of Good Omens and A Night in the Lonesome October.”
—Elizabeth Bear, Hugo-award winning author

“Shaw balances an agile mystery with a pitch-perfect, droll narrative and cast of lovable misfit characters. These are not your mother’s Dracula or demons … Strange Practice is a super(natural) read.”
—Shelf Awareness

Do you ever feel like there’s something more to your city than meets the eye?

Have you ever sensed a touch of magic simmering beneath the streets?

Do you ever wonder about the myths intertwined in our folklore – and whether there’s any truth to them?

You could just be right. Because this Autumn, something’s about to be let loose…

Today we can reveal the cover for CHASING EMBERS (UK/US/ANZ), a spectacular debut fantasy novel coming in September from author James Bennett.

If you’re a fan of the books of Ben Aaronovitch, Benedict Jacka, Jim Butcher and Kevin Hearne, this contemporary fantasy is about to sweep you off your feet . . .

Get ready to meet Red Ben Garston. He’s a rascal, a rogue and an anti-hero who will stand shoulder to shoulder (and likely end up in a tussle) with the likes of Harry Dresden, Alex Verus, Peter Grant and Atticus O’Sullivan. He’s got a chip on his shoulder and a very big secret hiding under his skin.

Intrigued? See the below info and stay tuned for more soon . . . It’s available for pre-order now.

Behind every myth there is a spark of truth.

There’s nothing special about Ben Garston. He’s just a guy with an attitude in a beaten-up leather jacket, drowning his sorrows about his ex in a local bar. Or so he’d have you believe.

What Ben Garston can’t let you know is that he’s also known as Red Ben. He can’t let you know that the world of myth and legend isn’t as make-believe as you think, and it’s his job to keep that a secret. And there’s no way he can let you know what’s really hiding beneath his skin . . .

But not even Ben knows what kind of hell is about to break loose. Because a centuries-old rivalry has just resurfaced, and the delicate balance between his world and ours is about to be shattered.

Something’s been hiding in the heart of the city – and it’s about to be unleashed.

Winter in New York: snow falls, lights twinkle, and a very disgruntled Selene DiSilva prowls the streets looking for prey.

But when a dead body is discovered sprawled atop Wall Street’s iconic Charging Bull statue, it’s clear the NYPD can’t solve the murder without help. The murder isn’t just the work of another homicidal cult — this time, someone’s sacrificing the gods themselves.

While raising fundamental questions about the very existence of the gods, Selene must hunt down the perpetrators, tracking a conspiracy that will test the bonds of loyalty and love.

Winter of the Gods is the second novel in the Olympus Bound trilogy. Myth blends with reality in this sequel to The Immortals that sets Greek gods against a modern Manhattan backdrop.

Praise for THE IMMORTALS:

“The Immortals is a lively re-imagining of classical mythology with an engaging premise, a page-turning plot, and an eye for the arresting and uncanny in contemporary urban life.” —Deborah Harkness, New York Times bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches

“…Brodsky knows her myth, and revels in depicting the erstwhile gods struggling with their fading powers and assuming, with varying degrees of success, the mantle of humanity.” —The Guardian

If you want a modern day murder mystery, steeped in myth with a dash of magic, this is a must read . . . Ms. Brodsky is definitely an author to watch.—Fantasy Faction
Cover Design by Kirk Benshoff.

THE IMMORTALS (US | UK | AUS) is an extraordinary novel combining myth and the modern era in a pulse-pounding story, and we couldn’t be more thrilled by the buzz surrounding it. Visit OlympusBound.com to learn about the fascinating lives the ancient gods and goddess have been living since the fall of the Greek and Roman empires and read an excerpt. We know that once you’ve read the first chapter, you’ll be absolutely hooked.

The Immortals will be available next week in print, digital, and audio formats.

Praise:

“The Immortals is a lively re-imagining of classical mythology with an engaging premise, a page-turning plot, and an eye for the arresting and uncanny in contemporary urban life.”―Deborah Harkness, New York Times bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches

“Brilliantly conceived and tautly plotted, The Immortals is a pulse thrumming, fascinating novel. Selene is a perfect heroine for our times.”―Eliot Schrefer

Releases in the UK on Feb. 18th.

“Imaginative and fast-paced, The Immortals is pulse-pounding entertainment.”―Kevin O’Brian, New York Times bestselling author of No One Needs to Know

“Brodsky’s writing has claws…They sink in with the first word and don’t let go until you are finished with the book.”―Darynda Jones, New York Times bestselling author

“Irresistible…a page-turner that deftly weaves action, romance, and a dash of intellectual heft into one seamless whole.”―Dustin Thomason, New York Times bestselling author

“Painstakingly researched, intellectually complex, and deeply rooted in the history and mythology of Ancient Greece, THE IMMORTALS is a richly imaginative, multi-layered tale that stimulates the heart and the mind in equal measure.”―Ian Caldwell, New York Times bestselling author

“Plays with more modern mythology, employing New York’s own secret places and storied history to great effect. This intelligent, provocative fantasy breathes exciting new life into old, familiar tales.”―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“This series launch is a wonderful choice for fans of Greek myths and urban fantasy readers looking for something different.”―Library Journal (starred review)

We remember when urban fantasy first arrived on our shelves, but the genre has changed significantly since then. Are these stories still popular? If so, why? We asked some of Orbit’s authors for their take on the genre’s past, present and future.

Where does urban or contemporary fantasy come from?

JIM BUTCHER, author of the bestselling Dresden Files, as well as recent adventure fantasy THE AERONAUT’S WINDLASS

‘Urban fantasy is nothing more or less than the resurgence of fairy tales. We’ve changed what our big bad wolves look and act like, and our forests appear somewhat different than they used to, and Little Red Riding Hood is generally much more heavily armed than she has traditionally been, but we’re telling the same stories, in the same ways, with the same emphasis on the fantastic and the terror and delight of its clash with our everyday world.

It’s the everyday reality that so many of us find terrifying – to such a degree that we flee to tales of vampires and werewolves and dark sorcerers just to lighten the mood.’

‘People have always created stories to try and make sense of stuff they could neither see nor understand. ‘Urban’ fantasy is just a logical step since as society has become less rural and more metropolitan so the old dark woods of the old fairy-stories have been replaced by a sodium-lit concrete jungle. And of course we may have moved to the cities, but we brought our darkness with us.

There’s a lot of product jammed in under the urban fantasy label that doesn’t do it for me, but the books that do mean something to me are the ones that engage creatively with the inevitable transition from the old to the new world and deal with its consequences as a central part of the story (AMERICAN GODS by Neil Gaiman is a particularly fine and definitive example of this).’

What does the future of urban fantasy look like?

LILITH SAINTCROW, author of the Bannon and Clare Affairs and BLOOD CALL, as well as many other urban fantasy series

‘I think the last five years, as with any shiny new trend, have brought a certain amount of reader fatigue. Urban fantasy isn’t going away, but it’s not so much of a Wild West ‘let’s throw a vampire in there and hope it sticks!’ anymore. Which is very good, if sometimes frustrating when paranormal or urban fantasy is what you want to write.

After working in publishing for so long, I see “urban fantasy” as a genre title, nothing less, nothing more. There’s always a market for tales well told, and urban fantasy, like any genre, offers a set of tools and toys for a writer to play with.’

‘I’d have trouble pinning down exactly how urban fantasy’s changed over the last five years, but I’m pretty sure that it’ll stay popular for the foreseeable future. The mash-up nature of urban fantasy lets it evolve easily, and the sources it draws on (comic books, games, epic fantasy) still have a lot of resonance for city-dwellers. So while I’d expect the type of urban fantasy stories to shift over time, I think the genre will stick around for a good while yet.’

PATRICIA BRIGGS, author of the Mercy Thompson series and the Alpha and Omega series

‘There isn’t a reader appetite for urban fantasy the way there used to be. Five years ago, any book that was urban fantasy was guaranteed a certain number of readers. I think, and it is not a bad thing, that readers are pickier now. For me as a reader, right now, what I love about urban fantasy is that there are so many good storytellers working in this field. Good stories still work and can still find an audience, though it might take longer to find a readership than before.

One of the things that I actually like about this is that we are seeing more diversity in books that are published again. I love, love, urban fantasy. But I also love space opera, traditional fantasy, and contemporary fantasy – and those genres were getting drowned.’

‘I like to read stories where the extra-ordinary and the ordinary mingle. Some people sneer at escapist literature, but “escape” implies relief, release, and freedom, none of which are bad things. Escape also inevitably holds a mirror up to the thing being escaped from.

Urban fantasy often gives ordinary characters a chance to demonstrate extraordinary qualities. It encourages readers to examine what it means to be human through contrast or by eliminating a lot of the obvious assumptions.

There have always been stories that introduced fantastical otherworldly elements into the everyday knockabout world that we humans optimistically call reality, and I expect there always will be.’

Were you a Percy Jackson fan when you were growing up? Read American Gods and loved it? A huge fan of contemporary fantasy like The Night Circus? A Discovery of Witches? The Golem and the Jinni? Well, look no further!

We’ve acquired three books by Jordanna Max Brodsky – a debut author who is writing an amazing contemporary fantasy about history, myth, Greek Gods, & Manhattan. To whet your appetite, here is a bit about THE IMMORTALS:

The Relentless One, the Bearer of the Bow, the Untamed…

…those are only a few of the names Selene DiSilva’s answered to over the years. But these days she’s content to work in secret, defending the women of Manhattan from the evils of men. She’s reclusive, stubborn, and deeply unfriendly to everyone but her dog. But when a woman’s mutilated body washes up in Riverside Park wearing a laurel wreath, Selene finds that she can no longer hide in the shadows. As more women are threatened, Selene is forced to embrace the one name she’s tried hardest to forget — Artemis. For who better to follow the killer’s tangled trail than the Goddess of the Hunt herself?

Jordanna Max Brodsky graduated from Harvard with a degree in History and Literature. She has long been fascinated with Greek mythology, in particular the ways in which the Olympians have come to life for so many, for so long. Here she imagines their inner lives as they lose their omnipotence and must find their way in our own modern world. Her Artemis is like a female Dexter with 3,000 years of baggage to unpack. THE IMMORTALS reimagines the milieu explored by Percy Jackson in much the same way The Magicians has for Harry Potter.